Sunday, 13 January 2008

Labour's spin machine will go into fast cycle over George Osborne's donations.

Let's make something very clear from the start: All the money donated to the Conservative Party, which was then passed on to George Osborne was fully declared to the Electoral Commission. George did not report the donations to the Register of Members' Interests because commons registrar Alda Barry told him his declarations "were in order". Unlike Peter Hain, George's donations were not hidden or passed to him through a dubious think tank unknown in Westminster. George said last night:

'I was told that my declarations were in order. 'Ms Barry has now told us that her initial advice may have been unclear. 'These donations are to the Conservative Party, they are openly declared and we have followed the rules as they were explained to us. 'All the donations over £5,000 have been declared to the Electoral Commission and are available for all to see on their website, as the law requires.'

No doubt Labour will try and spin this into being something akin to their dodgy donations situation, but unlike the donations received by Labour Ministers, this money was not hidden from public view or received through a questionable third party. George Osborne acted under the guidance of the senior Commons official in charge of the register for the secrecy. The sad truth is that Labour Ministers will put a spin on this, and some of the more gullible members of the public will fall for their lies. The fact that you have to scroll two thirds down the report on the BBC News Website to discover that George believed he was following sound advice from Alda Barry will not help matters.

George tried to declare the donations, but was told that he didn't need to. And he has the emails to prove it.